.
FAMOUS PROPERTIES
CITY HALL WITH A TWIST one Technology center
adds zest to Tulsa's image
DIANA MIREL IS
City governments have a lot of on their plates
A CONTRIBUTING
WRITER FOR in today's volatile political and economic
JPM^. IF YOU environment. Juggling everything from
HAVE OUESTIONS
REGARDING
balancing budgets to recovering from natural
THIS ARTICLE disasters, running a major U.S. city is more than
OR YOU ARE AN
full time job. And yet, the city of Tulsa recently
IREM MEMBER
INTERESTED IN added becoming a landlord to its list of duties.
WRITING FOR In 2008, under the leadership of former Mayor
JPM^PLEASE
E-MAIL MARIANA
Kathy Taylor, the city purchased One Technology
TOSCAS NOWAK Center as a way to consolidate employees and
AT MNOWAK
assets from five separate locations into a new
IREM.ORG.
City Hall. In taking ownership of this building,
the city also became the landlord to three
corporate tenants.
Mayor Taylor saw this opportunity as a way
to improve efficiencies within city government
by having as many city functions as possible
THE $224 MILLION,
in one building. She recognized that this move
15-FLOOR,
TECHNOLOGICALLY would also help improve occupancy rates and
ADVANCED
create economic development throughout the
BUILDING IS
INNOVATIVE EVEN city in the office spaces the city had previously
AFTER 10 YEARS. occupied. For instance, the former City Hall
was purchased by an investment company that
is redeveloping the property into a hotel located
near the city's new arena.
Further, the new City Hall has helped
rejuvenate the central business district.
"I can see a difference in the amount of foot
traffic in this area," said Tawnie Larson, CPM,
the CB Richard Ellis senior real estate manager
for One Technology Center. "It used to be slow
around here over lunch and before and after
work, but it has picked up now. It has been a
revitalization of this area."
Of course, becoming a landlord to Class A
office tenants is not an easy job. Maintaining that
Class A distinction was incredibly important to
the building's corporate tenants. CB Richard
Ellis was hired to manage the property and to
www.irem.org/jpm 20 may.jun 2011
ensure a smooth transition of the space.
"City governments are not usually landlords
with third-party tenants, so that was the biggest
challenge at the beginning," said Larson. "I
worked with them to help them understand that
when you have tenants paying rent, they are your
customers, so their needs are e.scalated. There is
a timeline for responding that is expected in a
Class A facility."
GOING PUBLIC
One of the tenants' biggest concerns was that
the building was changing from a private office
building into a public space.
"They were wondering if there would be
people just wandering around the building once
it was opened for business for the public," .said
Larson.
To assuage these concerns, Larson worked
closely with Tulsa's chief of security and
maintained open communication with the
tenants.
"We had multiple meetings with them before
the city moved in so everyone understood what
the process was," she said.
Certain areas within the property restrict
public entry, and there are access controls
on every floor. To further create separation
between the tenants and the public, the city
created two separate entries into the building: a
public entrance and a tenant entrance.
TEN YEARS YOUNG
When it was built 10 years ago by the Williams
Companies as the headquarters for Williams
Communications (WilTell), the property
was a 15-floor high-tech, fiber-optic digital
communications powerhouse, with a $224
million price tag. The all-glass building was a

single-tenant property with the capacity to hold about
4,000 employees.
The building was designed to be first-class all the way.
Stone floors, glass paneled walls and stainless steel design
details gave it a modern appeal.
"The building is now 10 years old, and it still looks like it
is brand new in some areas because it was built with such
vision 10 years ago," said Larson.
With energy efficient mechanical systems, the building's
infrastructure was ahead of its time. A solar well on the
east side of the building serves as a thermal buffer during
the morning heat-gain and allows the building to use only
50 percent of the energy of comparable buildings.
The interior space was equally innovative, with an open
floor plan and state-of-the-art technology. The building
is totally wired, internet-ready and video-capable. The
workstations are all plug-and-play, making it very easy for
new tenants to move into the space.
Although the workstations are open to encourage
communication, WilTell also wanted to provide employees
with the privacy they required. Each floor has a large
glass-enclosed conference room called a chat room,
smaller, four-person conference rooms called huddle
rooms, and privacy rooms. A common area in the middle
of each floor, called the internet caf, is set up with diner-
style booths and high tables, all wired for plug and play.
The internet caf also has a bar area with bar stools,
vending machines and coffee.
SWITCHING PARTY LINES
As the telecommunications industry began taking major
hits in the early 2000s, WilTell filed for bankruptcy in
2002 and could no longer occupy the entire building.
The building went on the market in 2005, and the city
purchased it in late 2007 from an investor.
Today, one of the most unique setups within the
building is on the 15"' floor, which houses shared space
between the Bank of Oklahoma (BOK) and the Mayor's
office. The 15"'floororiginally functioned as the executive
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ORIGINALLY BUILT AS THE HEADQUARTERS FOR WILLIAMS
COMMUNICATIONS (WILTELL), ONE TECHNOLOGY CENTER IN
TULSA HAS TRANSFORMED INTO A STATE-OF-THE-ART CITY
HALL-REINVIGORATING THE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT.
space for WilTell, so the floor plan is a bit different than
the rest of the floors, which are all open to accommodate
about 300 people. The 15"' floor is a combination of 100
workstations on the west side and hard-wall offices on the
east side.
BOK resides on the west side of the floor, utilizing
the open workstations and a few hard-wall offices. The
city then utilizes the east side of the floor, occupying
primarily hard-wall offices. BOK and the city share some
of the internet caf and break area spaces, but they each
have their own conference rooms. The 15"' floor is also
equipped with a white noise system in the ceiling, which
provides more privacy for the city and the bank.
"[Former] Mayor Taylor had a strong relationship
with the Bank of Oklahoma, and even though she didn't
run for office again and is no longer the mayor, there is
still mutual respect between [BOK and the city], and an
understanding that this is a shared space, so there are not
any issues," said Larson.
The move into One Technology Center has been a
sound financial move for the city as well. For instance, the
city now occupies 30 percent less total office space and
the building's energy efficiency is expected to offer long-
term savings in energy costs compared to the former city
offices.
Yes, running a city government is tough work. But
since the city of Tulsa took ownership of One Technology
Center, it established a creative and effective way to make
government itself less expensive and more efficient.
may.jun 2011
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